The entities bought the property in 2006 from BHGG LLC for $4.3 million.

Built in 1999, the Class B storage facility sits on 5.3 acres on the south side of U.S 64 between Appling Road and Dromedary Drive. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2013 appraisal is $2.9 million.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

Yellin Appointed Chief of School Communications

Emily Yellin, who wrote a bestselling book on customer service titled “Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us,” is the new chief communications officer for Shelby County Schools.

Yellin’s appointment by interim schools superintendent Dorsey Hopson was announced Thursday, Aug.15, and is effective immediately.

Yellin takes the job as the system has struggled with the opening of the first year of the unified school district, with parents complaining they can’t reach school officials to handle complaints about transportation problems and other issues.

Because of the success of her book about customer service, Yellin has worked as a consultant to companies across the nation on such issues.

The Central High School graduate, who lives in Memphis, has also worked as a reporter covering the Southeastern United States for The New York Times. She has also written for Time magazine, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Smithsonian magazine, Memphis magazine and The Memphis Flyer.

– Bill Dries

Collage Summer Social Celebrates 2013 Successes

Collage dance Collective’s 4th Annual Summer Social and Jazz Brunch is scheduled for Aug. 25 and will include performances by Kirk Whalum and Otis Faithful, as well as dishes prepared by Erling Jensen.

The event, happening from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Memphis Botanic Garden, showcases Collage’s professional dance company and the Collage Ballet Conservatory, comprised of local students.

Collage recently moved to the Broad Avenue Arts District, and donations from a Kickstarter campaign helped to update the dance studio for the company and students.

Collage dance Collective was founded in New York City in 2006 and relocated to Memphis in 2007.

– Andy Meek

University of Memphis Offers Teacher Residency Program

Memphis schools in the state-run Achievement School District will use teachers from the University of Memphis College of Education, Health and Human Sciences in a residency program agreement.

The residencies in the Ready2Teach program are for a year. The program itself is a four-year undergraduate teacher-preparation program that includes Common Core standards.

Memphis Teacher Residency and Teach for America are already operating teacher residency programs across the consolidated Shelby County Schools, charter schools and the Achievement School District.

– Bill Dries

US Home Foreclosures on Track for 6-Year Low

The U.S. is on track to end the year with the fewest homes repossessed by lenders in six years, a trend that should help limit the negative impact foreclosures have on home values.

Lenders repossessed 36,964 U.S. homes last month, down 31 percent from July last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

At the monthly average pace through July, completed foreclosures are projected to total nearly 490,000 this year, down roughly 27 percent from last year, the firm said. That’s also the lowest since 2007, when 404,849 homes were taken back by banks.

Foreclosures peaked in 2010 at 1.05 million and have been declining ever since. The trend has been accelerating as U.S. home prices have increased amid a resurgent housing market, steady job gains and still-low mortgage interest rates.

– The Associated Press

Fewest Workers Since 2007 Seek Jobless Benefits

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped 15,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 320,000, the fewest since October 2007 – a sign of dwindling layoffs and steady if modest job growth.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average fell 4,000 to 332,000, the fewest since November 2007 and the fifth straight decline.

Companies are laying off fewer workers, a trend that has lowered applications for unemployment benefits 14 percent this year. But hiring is still sluggish, resulting in only modest net job growth.

At the depth of the recession in March 2009, weekly applications for unemployment benefits numbered 670,000. They have fallen steadily ever since.

Nearly 4.6 million Americans received unemployment benefits in the week that ended July 27, the latest period for which data are available. That’s about 66,000 more than in the previous week but nearly 20 percent less than a year ago.

– The Associated Press

Workers Going It Alone for Retirement Funds

When it comes to funding their retirements, most workers say they will need to come up with the money themselves rather than rely on government assistance, according to a survey released Thursday by Charles Schwab Corp.

Of those surveyed, 89 percent said they are relying on themselves for retirement funds once they stop working full time. Five percent said that they are relying on the government and 4 percent said that they are relying on a spouse. Sixty-one percent of respondents said that their 401(k) savings will be their only or largest source of retirement savings.

The figures are based on an online survey of 1,004 workers, between the ages of 25 and 75, who contribute to their employer’s 401(k) plans.

The results show that people aren’t banking on social security or other government assistance to help them make it through their golden years.

As a result, workers are boosting their retirement funds. Fifty-five percent of respondents have increased their savings in the last two years. Seventy percent say that their 401(k) is in better shape than ever before.

Although most retirement savings took a hit during the financial crisis, 74 percent say that their 401(k)s have recovered about as fast or even faster than expected.

– The Associated Press

83 Tennessee School Districts Awarded Federal Funds

The Tennessee Department of Education is giving local school districts $8 million in federal education funds.

The money will be awarded to 83 districts that have chosen to participate in the First to the Top Scope of Work Supplemental Fund. The funds are part of the more than $500 million the state won three years ago in the national Race to the Top education grant competition.

Officials say the districts chose to implement at least one innovative program or strategy in three categories: teacher evaluation, implementation of the common core state standards and student assignment.

These areas reflect priorities of the state’s Race to the Top grant.

The districts have chosen strategies such as conducting the February writing assessments online in grades 3-11 and using two observers for at least one of a teacher’s mandatory observations.